On Friday, an official report estimated that the dual earthquakes which struck southern Türkiye on Feb. 6 resulted in a cost of around 2 trillion Turkish liras (approximately USD 105.2 billion) for the country.
The Treasury and Finance Ministry of Türkiye declared the report, which was prepared by the presidency’s department of strategy and budget, and anticipated that the financial burden caused by the tragic tremors could amount to almost 9 percent of the national income in 2023.
The research observed that the support expenses to the earthquake area cost a total of 351 billion liras (approximately USD 18.5 billion) in national income.
Housing damage accounted for the largest share of the earthquake’s total burden on the Turkish economy, with a monetary value of 1.07 trillion liras (about USD 56.4 billion) and representing 54.9 percent of the total cost.
The second most significant cause of loss was the destruction of public infrastructure and service buildings, with an approximate value of 242.5 billion liras (about USD 12.7 billion).
Excluding housing, the private sector damage was calculated at 222.4 billion liras (about USD 11.7 billion) and included damage to the manufacturing, energy, communication, tourism, health, and education sectors.
The quakes, a magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Türkiye’s southern province of Kahramanmaras at 4:17 a.m. local time (0117 GMT) on Feb. 6, followed by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Kahramanmaras province at 1:24 p.m. local time (1024 GMT), affected 11 provinces of Turkey and resulted in a death toll of more than 48,000 while leaving tens of thousands of people homeless. – BusinessNewsAsia.com